ESSENTIALS: A HAT

How to travel the world with a hat

A hat is the perfect addition to even the best travel outfits. But how to choose THE ONE and how to pack a hat for traveling?! It is just not practical to pack your entire hat-collection or even two or three for that matter… Sju, a London based hat designer (By Sju) shares ideas on how to travel (the world) with a hat.

But first… let me tell you a little something about Sju. This is a brand with a story! By Sju is founded in 2014, but before it got to that there was a lot that happend. One day Sju received a special gift of her grandfather; a hat. Found at the family attic, stored there for years… It was a bowler hat from the 1930’s and Sju immediately fell in love with the thing. But, this was more than an affair… this love at first sight became an obsession. Unable to find the same quality of materials in modern design, Sju’s search led her to track down the original factory that made her grandfathers hat with the singular intention of returning the work of the master milliners to the streets of London. Today, Sju designed several hats that are ready to rock any airport, anywhere. We at Pulp Collectors love to wear them and made a small lookbook with Shaftesbury Avenue to share some travel outfits ideas.

HOW TO TRAVEL WITH A HAT

Pick the right type

Not every type of a hat goes with all the styles you are planning to wear on your travels. Pick the one style that is the most playful and goes with elegant, chic, but also casual or street style wear. A good example would be a bowler hat, which complements all these different styles.

Pick the right colour

Pick a colour that you know you’ll wear with all / most of the clothes you are packing with you. You are going to explore/see new sights, meet new people, and so you want to be wearing the hat on most occasions when you’re out.

For example, if most of your clothes are darker and you would like to break this flow slightly, choose a more colourful hat (orange, bordeaux or green). You will still retain your style wearing darker clothes, adding a little twist/edge to your overall look.

Another example is if most of your clothes are full of colour and you want to ease the full look a little bit, choose a darker colour hat (black or dark blue)

Pack or Wear my hat?

This depends on the length of travelling you are doing and the size of the luggage you are taking with you. If you are on a short flight you are probably only taking hand luggage, in which case you’ll need all the space available. A hat would not fit into a small suitcase, without being squeezed, so its best if you are wearing it on your travels.

If you are on a long-haul flight, you have enough space in the luggage and would not like to take the hat with you on board, feel free to pack it with the rest of your closet. Just be careful not to have many ‘heavy’ objects around it as they might squeeze the hat which then might lose its shape (even a few hours are enough for this to happen so be really careful!!) And lastly don’t forget to pack a roller, in case your hat gets a bit dusty during your travels.

Having said all the above, the ideal tip would be to wear your hat while travelling, to allow using all the space in your luggage and to make travelling more exciting than it ever was before.

FIND THE PERFECT HAT

Now you know how to travel with a hat, did you found the perfect model yet? Manoah wears his By Sju “Shaftesbury-Avenue” while visiting the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, while exploring the dunes and during a city stroll.Like a chameleon adapts to color, this hat adapts to so many various styles you like to wear. For female hat-inspiration watch the Anton Corbijn article.